A tweet too far?

A single tweet sent by Canada’s Foreign Affair Department being “gravely concerned” about Saudi Arabia’s arrest of political activists and urging their release has provoked a storm that shows little sign of stopping. At the time of writing Saudi Arabia has asked the Canadian ambassador to leave, recalled its own ambassador, recalled its foreign students in Canada, cancelled flights and sold investments in Canada, possibly at a loss. With Canada not showing any signs of the required apology or backing down on its human rights stance things are only likely to get worse.

Both Sweden and Germany have felt the wrath of Saudi Arabia before and so far, public declarations of support from countries that have more clout with the kingdom, U.S., UK and France have not been forthcoming.

Saudi Arabia’s record on human rights is not good. Yet, the kingdom is incredibly rich, so I guess it’s OK to put human rights to the side and do business. Business is business, so they say. So, what else could be at risk here? The status of Canadians and Canadian businesses in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabians and dual citizens in Canada are being challenged by the flight cancellations and could face even arrest if they overstay in Saudi Arabia. Also, the major and sometimes controversial arms deal that Canada has with armoured cars and the import of oil from Saudi Arabia of around 100,000 barrels of oil a day into Canada. From a parenting perspective that so many people and businesses are and could suffer over a tweet is ridiculous. I’m not suggesting that the content of the tweet is incorrect for a moment or that Saudi Arabia, in the news again for bombing raids in Yemen, should not be urged to reform. I am suggesting that tweeting, and that applies in a lot of other places too, may not be an appropriate tool of official government diplomacy or policy and should only be used for lighter matters. I think the problem could have been not the content so much of the message, it’s been said and ignored, many times before, but the manner of its delivery. Now we’re in stalemate where neither side can back down and preserve face.

So, from a Canadian perspective try and turn the negatives into positives? Maybe offer the students a route to Permanent Residency if they want it, offer the courses to others who would otherwise not normally be able to take them, compensate and help individuals and businesses that are affected by the row, scrap the defence contract if need be and spend the money with the contractors for Canadian defence capability, replace imported oil with our own. It’s ridiculous that we import any oil given how much we have of the stuff.

On another matter, briefly. The battle of Trump versus Mueller looks to have reached another phase. Mueller has requested an interview and been declined, this time. How far will this go? All the way to a subpoena maybe? That will be a long fight too. The Manafort trial goes on and all the time the mid-terms loom. The Ohio special election, which should have been an easy Republican win is too close to call at the time of writing with round two to come in November. Even a close win by the Republicans will be unnerving in a safe seat, parties that lose seats often turn on their leaders.